Tag Archives: 1-day

Bucket Challenge: Spend a day in Silence or In the Silence Space You Have Within
(Ending Sunday 27th May 2012)

What is the Space Within?

The Space Within is the space where you, your physical body and your thoughts becoming aware of and embracing each other. It’s in this space where allowing is taking place, allowing things, objects, events and the understanding of yourself, physically or mentally, just the way they are. It’s the space of letting go of ego, judgments and thoughts, voluntary or involuntary.

Let me explain this way: when an incident happens (for example: a +-35 years old prostitute takes a +-10 years old young girl along while trying to attract business on the road), the incident itself is neutral and as it is (what we be seeing without thoughts). However we, with a pair of tinted glasses (tinted by background, religious beliefs, personal experiences or beliefs, ethics…etc), we have different views than what we actually see (i.e. she is so shameless, she is polluting younger girls, she supposes to protect her …), we have different thoughts and judgments appearing in our brain (i.e. how could she does that.., how she ends up like this …). These thoughts bring emotions to us (i.e. may be anger, disappointed, feeling disgraceful, sad, empathetic …) and perhaps these thoughts also re-enforce your beliefs or actions (once again).

The pattern here is that (1) an incident happens –> (2) We SEE what we want or choose to see —> (3) We FEEL what we think we are feeling or want to feel —> (4) We CONCLUDE what we believe or want to believe, and continue the looping, merely guided by our subconscious mind (whatever suits us, believe or not). What the Space is referring to is that after we have becoming aware of our own pattern —> (1) —> (2) —> (3),

we become aware of our own patterns and take a step back; take the time to see the incident as it is, watch our own thoughts andjudgments made instantly, flying in and out of our mind; just allowing the thought and judgment as it is, accept as it is, allowing this moments for – the incident, what you see, what you think and for you alone. This is then the moment the Space arises.

This new Space within is a stillness, a silence, a pause, a chance, an opening to new vision and an opportunity to make new decision (if you want to break your own patterns); it’s an awakening call to see other possibilities and alternatives available out there; it’s a disguised second chance!

From there, the (4) mentioned above will no longer be the same each single time. Because we will be heading into the Space with one question, but leaving the space with many solutions to choose from! 🙂

Let’s work together to find and explore this Silence Space within us!

Challenge:

Spend a day in Silence or In the Silence Space You Have Within

Find the Space Within and spend time with your inner self (this doesn’t mean you stop doing everything; it’s more doing daily things with the awareness of what you, your body and your mind are doing!)

Extra Challenge:

Take 1 or 2 incidents in your life, take them to this space within and enjoy looking at them.

Goals:

To see own patterns, to create this space within, to learn to accept things as it is, to practice and to enjoy the space 🙂

Time required:

8 hours

Energy level:

Medium to High

Preparation:

(a) Try limit talking or make contacts with others. It’s a time spent with yourself;(b) Be aware of your own thoughts patterns and actions and allowing this SPACE to come in.

This post is inspired by the book “The Journey into Yourself” by Eckhart Tolle (the author of “Power of NOW“). In his book, there are more examples and insights into the relationship between oneself and NOW and this SPACE allowed for solutions, creativity, inspiration and stillness (peace) to appear.

To be able to give is a blessing; be able to give generously is an abundance of the heart!

Receiving is a form of giving; giving the opportunity to the giver and allowing ourselves to be humble (that we need other’s help).

If you have not yet opened your heart to GIVE or RECEIVE, this post brings the 1st GIFT to open your heart, if you let us!

People nowadays have more possessions than people 10 or 20 years ago and yet give or share with others much less than 10 or 20 years ago. People nowadays earn much more in monetary terms and yet hold tighter of what they have … Isn’t this contradicting?

For some people, GIVING is natural and it’s not a difficult act. However for some people, they just don’t give, let along giving to total strangers. When you ask them, it’s either the act of giving just never appears in their mind or the act is not a part of their habits, or simply they just don’t feel or want to give.

Everyone takes RECEIVING differently. Some do not really like it, their ego see it as they are being pity on. Some are very fond of it as they take advantages of others via receiving from them. And some see it as the opportunities to connect and sustain the two ways interactions, thus the relationship.

With GIVING or RECEIVING, the action is not merely a DO, but a sincere GIVING or RECEIVING involves our hearts, genuine caring, open mind and careful execution. So both the giver and the receiver are content and fulfilled in the process. They both experience what they want to experience and will promote this GIVING and RECEIVING further with people around them. There was a movie, Pay It Forward also promoting similar concept! Have a look in YouTube video 🙂

So, our challenge for this week is to GIVE and to RECEIVE with your heart! It’s not so much about giving the tangibles, i.e. money, car, clothes, books away to others, but more about to offer what you have that are intangibles, the elements that make up the YOU today, i.e. your kindness, wisdom, helpful hands…etc. And as to RECEIVE, our challenge is to be aware of how open we are to receive from others and how we receive from others.

Start with giving a gift after you have read this post and experience yourself the feeling of GIVING!

Our first gift to give away is this POST to our readers 🙂 Hope this 7 days gifting and receiving experience impacts and influences your life! Come join us!

Challenge:

Give away 1 gift each day for consecutive 7 days!

Share your abundance with others

Extra Challenge:

Increase to 14 days!

Goals:

To experience via giving, how life around us may be changed ~ (and notice how valuable you are!)

Time required:

x hour(s) each day for 7 days (depending on what you offer to others)

Energy level:

Medium to High

Preparation:

(a) Set your mind to give without expecting any returns;(b) Focus more on the intangibles (i.e. help, advice, words of comforts, actions) that you may offer to others than the tangibles (i.e. money, food…etc).

Ever have the moments of facing fear, physical difficulties and fatigue, and you are so out of breath, your body starts to signal collapse and all you can think of is having a break?? And your mind is keeping on saying, “don’t stop, you cannot stop now, just walk a bit more, just a step more and almost there…”. Your hands, legs and body continue forward like an invincible robot, because your mind commands so; all of a sudden, you feel you are out of your body, this is not your body anymore…

This is the trans, the transition where your physical body is not controlled by you, but instead by your mind power. It’s like the mind has pre-set your body to achieve certain goals (in this case, to finish the 4 hours walk) and despite all the fatigue, out of breath experienced and in the head conversations, thoughts to quit and stop, the body just will not fret, because the body is programmed to ignore all any others, but to reach the goals (to finish the walk)!

” Mind Power is directing your thoughts toward a desired outcome. Put simply, what you focus on you attract. “ By J. Kehoe, Mind Power Basics.

The week is to challenge ourselves to explore and exercise our mind power. If you are not familiar about the ‘mind power’, google it and read up about it (which I have started searching while preparing this post and still learning and checking out). Just give it a try! If you are exercising mind power and have some stories to share, please share with us in the comment section. It’s an pretty abstract subject and it’s an experience you will truly know and accept only when you have experienced it yourself.

Are you ready to explore and exercise your mind power with us this week?

Challenge:

Mind Power dictates Physical Strength!

Set a goal, challenge and go beyond what you think your physical ability can achieve.

This week is the first week back after our long working and travelling 5 weeks in Argentina! We have lots to share and lots to catch up, especially our weekly challenges!! For us, our this week challenge is to (a) catch up the missing three challenges in the past weeks, W16, W17, W18 and (b) publish at least 4 posts sharing our trips in Argentina! Whhooo….

And as for your challenge this week -> share your thoughts via writing!!

If you are already a blogger, like us, set yourself a daring target which exceeds all the targets you had before, i.e. write and publish more posts than you had before within a week or set up another blog, website and share more of your thoughts or hobbies.

If you don’t have a blog, why not visit a couple of blogs with topics that you are interested and share your view about what other people said? Or send your shared thoughts as a guest post? Or even more daring, start your own blog this week!! With the help of Word Press, setting up a blog has becoming lots easier nowadays!!

The main purpose of this week challenge is about letting your voice heard!! No matter if you are an open, confident in sharing own thoughts type of person and when you start talking, everyone listens; or in the contrary, you are a shy, slower to open up type and always waiting for someone to give you the chance to speak up; it is NOW that you give yourself the opportunity to share, to speak up by writing your thoughts out TO THE WORLD!!

I am already in actions as you may see in the picture above! Come join us!

Bucket Challenge: Go to a live match, concert or exhibition etc.(Ending Sunday 15th April 2012)

This weekly challenge will be quite easy and just enjoy the experience! We also like easy challenge!

We watch a lot of videos through TV, cinema or online streaming. Comparatively we watch very few live events. So, as time passes we tend to forget how impactful is to watch something in live! For example, the feeling of being with a crazy crowd of people cheering, screaming and jumping up and down after a goal is not the same as alone by yourself in front of the TV at home.

Furthermore, a lot of shows are not well adapted to TV, like many magic shows. The “magical” effects of these shows just kind of disappear when they are on screen. So does the spirit within us to experience something in live setting. We need to constantly re-stimulate and remind ourselves to watch, experience and enjoy something vividly alive!

So in this week, let’s take a ticket to a live experience. It may be a live soccer game, a live concert, a theater performance or as simple as a street performance.

Bucket Challenge: Go where you always wanted or need to go!!(Ending Sunday 22th January 2012)

Is there a place or places that you always wanted or dream to go, but there are always some reasons, so that you still have not yet visited the places?? Or is there a trip or some trips that you have promised your family, friends or even to yourself to take, but just haven’t got around to it?? Think about these places and trips! Ask yourself: When will be the BEST TIME other than NOW??

Actually there is no so-called BEST TIME as we all know it!! NOW is always the BEST TIME.

This week challenge is to ask you: take a deep breath and JUST DO IT!! Book a trip right now and JUST GO! Better yet, JUST GO RIGHT TODAY!! As crazy and unplanned as it seems, just let yourself go once without thinking, worrying it too much, over-planning the trip, or let the ‘obstacles’ and ‘excusing’ successfully stop you. You want to go to these places, aren’t you?? You promised to go, isn’t it? Then what are you waiting for??

Challenge:

Stop postponing your trip or promises!

Take-off a trip to where you always want to go, need to go or first comes in mind!! You owe it to yourself! Or to your family or friends!

Extra Challenge:

Other than vacation type of trips, how about trips like visiting parents or trips you know you need to go, but have been avoiding (i.i. dental, body check-up or others…). Perhaps even soul-searching trip!

Goals:

To break the circle of postponing! Just be action-oriented and JUST DOOOOO IT!!

Time required:

3-hours to a weekend or more

Energy level:

Low to medium

Preparation:

Book a trip, plan nothing, prepare your mind – just have fun!

Just did it!! We have booked a trip to Bilbao for this weekend 🙂 A tick in Our 2012 (Resolutions) Project Actions and Progress!! I always wanted to go visit Guggenheim museum since at least 10 years ago… The urge is getting stronger and stronger lately (not exactly knowing the reason). And Thandor always want to do a culture trip. Voila, here we go!!

Stepping into a new year 2012, it’s time to make some space for the new beginning at our home! In life, we accumulate so many stuff as years go by. We have kept so many stuff that most of the time our home become messy and occupied.

In the society now days, people are obsessed with ‘stuff’. To complete the void in life, we buy ‘stuff’, we keep ‘stuff’ and we reminisce on the ‘stuff’. And yet, this does not make our lives more meaningful, but just a bigger mortgage 🙂 So why don’t we try to leave our ‘stuff’ behind and pursue a more meaningful life that is not fulfilled by ‘stuff’?!

The 1st challenge in 2012 requires us to throw away at least 20 stuffs we own. Instead of throwing away, you may choose to give away, sell on eBay, do a garage sales or donate to charities.

It can be pretty hard and emotional to throw away ‘precious’ stuffs that we have kept for ages. But let’s admit it, how many of those kept stuff are in daily use? Perhaps you keep them in the garage, basement, or bottom shelves, in case one day, you might need them… Really? The challenge here is to say farewell to these stuff. I know one quote from somewhere:”If your hands are holding on something old, you will not able to catch something new.“

Alternatively, an easy interim step to throw away stuff is to create an interim purgatory. Gather all the stuff together which are to be throw away in your garage or in boxes. Leave them for 3 months (or less) for final reminiscence; then when the time comes, just close your eyes and throw them away or give to friends.

Challenge:

Throw away at least 20 stuff

Okay, cleaning your computer folders counting as 1 😛 You still have 19 other things to trow away 😉

Extra Challenge:

Throw away old unhealthy habits or beliefs! Leave room for the new ones!!

Goals:

Be more detach with ‘stuff’ and focus on true things.

Time required:

1-day

Energy level:

Low to medium

Preparation:

Spare a day, get some trash bag, close your eyes and ready to throw, create an eBay account, make some advertisement for garage sales…etc.